


Cold Corners

by catpoop



Series: Sheith Month 2017 [7]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Happy Ending, Light Angst, M/M, SheithMonth2k17, keith is always sad, keith is sad, wen will my husbend return from war (kind of)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-07
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-12-12 05:34:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11730546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catpoop/pseuds/catpoop
Summary: Sheith Month '17 - 10/8: Prosthetic(Merpeople!AU) Keith remembers Shiro's capture like it was yesterday





	Cold Corners

**Author's Note:**

> these fics r getting shorter and shorter ... shit

After four cycles, his friends have already given up. It’s obvious, in the way they’re reluctant to follow Keith in his daily patrols of the demesne and surrounding seas.

“I’m on food duty.”  
“Energy research.”  
“Er – same? Useful stuff, yeah?”

Keith scowls. “Fine. I didn’t need you anyway.”

“Stay safe!” Hunk yells, but Keith can’t hear him over the rush of water swept up by his sleek tail.

He knows this ocean like the back of his hand; has fruitlessly scanned every nook and cranny in the past days. Ever since Shiro was captured and towed out of the ocean in a flurry of limbs and desperate bubbles like some base creature, Keith hasn’t had a moment of rest.

Keith prides himself on his speed, on the way the ocean splits before him with each thrash of his long tailfin – but the human vessel was impossible to catch despite a day, then two, of endless swimming. He’d only retreated because sprinting on little to no sustenance is tough, even for him. 

Keith _has_ met escapees from human capture, missing a limb or an eye or their previous naiveté and happiness, but he’s noticed one pattern – they are always the youngest, the fittest. And Shiro’s both of those, but everyone knows about his misshapen tailfin. He was never a good swimmer, preferring to improve his sparring skills until no one cared about his swimming anymore. 

And that was why he was stationed at a defensive outpost on the edge of the city and why he was captured. Keith swims faster, angry at the hopelessness trying to creep into his veins. 

_I’ll find you, Shiro._

\-----

Keith doesn’t find him, not that cycle. Nor the next.

Pidge attempts to reason with him. Hunk bribes him with food. Lance … tries.

“He’ll come back. I’m sure he will.”

Their words don’t exactly relieve Keith’s fears – amputation, experiments, _tanks_. He shudders with an exhale. “I know. But I need to find him, first.”

“Okay, Keith.”

Ending yet another conversation. Keith knows they’ll leave him be, preferring to go back to their safe, ordinary lives. They’re not cowards, not really, because the tiny spark of hope in Keith’s chest is foolish, and he knows it.

He snaps his teeth in agitation, savours saline on his tongue and water on his skin. Bubbles trail in his wake as he leaves civilisation behind to stare out at the endless expanse before him and to turn his face to the sky and wonder how many humans are passing by.

He never finds Shiro on his desperate searches, because one day the ocean returns him in Her arms.

\-----

Keith gasps in tearful disbelief. Shiro’s whole, but – changed. With a joyous expression, he advances towards Keith far too quickly, white spots on grey flank shimmering behind him. Keith lets himself be pulled into a hug, numbly pressing his face against Shiro’s shoulder. And then he notices.

His tailfin, once crooked, disfigured stump, has been replaced with sharp edges of sleek black.

“S-Shiro?”

Shiro hums comfort into his neck, too relieved to reply.

“What’s that?”

“What’s – oh.” Grey eyes follow Keith’s outstretched pointer finger to the tip of his tail, and crinkle in weary hope. “They fixed my tail for me, see? I can swim now.” Shiro sweeps the broad fin, buoying Keith upwards in a rush of water.

“But – but –” Keith scans his face for injury, thumbing the new scar across his nose. He’s sure some of the marks on Shiro’s arms and chest are new, too. “They hurt you! Why would they help you?”

“I was caught in a net,” Shiro rubs at a pink line on his forearm, “but once they freed me, I was taken to – taken somewhere. You’ve heard of tanks, right?” And Keith nods, because they’ve all heard of the torture devices since childhood, terrifying and inescapable, especially for any disobedient children who sneak out. “They put me in one, but it was large enough I could swim a little, and I don’t know why they kept me for so long – until they handed me _this_.”

Shiro shows off the fake tail again, and Keith moves to get a closer look. It’s dark, darker than Shiro’s grey skin, and hard to the touch when Keith brushes a tentative finger over a sharp edge. He flinches away, uncertain.

“What did they do to your actual tail?” 

Keith’s terror is infectious, but Shiro maintains a calm voice. “It’s still there, I think. It fits over my tail.”

“O-Okay.”

Maybe they’ll let Pidge take a look, or a physician, but first, Keith needs to get him home. “Quickly, let’s go, before the humans come back.”

“They won’t,” Shiro smiles, following Keith anyway. 

For once, they can swim side by side, Keith snapping his tail to the sound of Shiro’s laughter.

**Author's Note:**

> <3 thank u for reading
> 
> @swummeng-geys.tumblr.com  
> twitter: @hashtag_yikes


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